The present invention relates generally to location based services. In particular, the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for contextual application deployment for mobile devices.
Currently, mobile devices use a model of application deployment by which the user locates applications for use on a mobile device by actively having to search for each application. For example, this is typically achieved by accessing an application store and manually searching for an application of interest.
Although this model is suitable for some types of applications, which are not, for example, location specific or time dependent, for example games, music etc., this type of deployment model does not work for applications that are location specific or time dependent. These types of applications are termed situational applications. Examples of situational applications are applications for ordering food from a seat at a local restaurant or café or informing one what type of activities are available when one enters a theme park.
There are many problems encountered when trying to use a traditional application deployment model for situational applications. These problems range from a user not knowing that an application which is relevant to their situation exists, or the user may know about the application but must be able to use it within a certain time period.